Group litigation in the UK allows multiple parties with the same cause of action to litigate together, similar to class action lawsuits in the US. A Group Litigation Order (GLO) must be signed by the court, and a group register is maintained in the Management Court. The Law Society oversees the implementation of the order under HMCS. Attorneys can form a group and choose one attorney to lead in organizing information and filing the application for a GLO. The process is only available in court proceedings and has proven useful in cases where a government agency is the defendant. In the US, class action lawsuits allow a group with similar or identical claims to bring a lawsuit against the same defendant or defendants.
Group litigation is a term used in the UK to describe a lawsuit in which multiple parties or plaintiffs with the same cause of action litigate together over their claims. This allows a court to dispose of claims more efficiently by hearing all of them in a case. This type of litigation is comparable to class action lawsuits in the United States.
Litigation by a group of plaintiffs is only permitted after the court has signed a Group Litigation Order (GLO). All questions of law and fact common to the parties are set out in the order. Any party may request the issuance of a GLO, including the defendants. The court can also enter a GLO on its own initiative.
To help administer group disputes, a group register is maintained in the Management Court, a judicial division that deals with multi-party cases. The GLO is issued by the Law Society, which oversees the implementation of the order under the direction of Her Majesty’s Court Service (HMCS). HMCS is the executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. The mission of HMCS is to provide effective and efficient justice to the public.
The Law Society encourages attorneys who may think a GLO is warranted in a case to form a group of attorneys with a litigation team and choose one attorney to lead in organizing information and filing the application for a GLO . Order management is very flexible. The Law Society remains in contact with the attorneys involved and responds to questions or concerns about how orders are carried out.
The group litigation process in the UK is only available in court proceedings. Enabling a single court to handle multiple complaints arising from similar matters of law and fact has proven extremely useful in cases where a government agency is the defendant. For example, there was a case where a GLO enabled several taxpayers to claim compensation for unlawful double taxation. One of the first and largest orders that allowed the parties to bring their claims as a group involved more than 200 companies.
In the United States, a similar type of group litigation, the class action lawsuit, allows a group with similar or identical claims to bring a lawsuit against the same defendant or defendants. The “class” is a group of people who are in a similar situation in terms of the alleged legal harm done to them and must be certified by the court. US courts also sometimes allow consumer organizations or public interest groups to bring suits on behalf of any citizen affected by a government agency’s policies or rules.
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